A Day to Remember
by Rumige
Summary: Teams RWBY and JNR are approaching the end of their journeys, but one obstacle stands in their way. Can they finish the fight that was started so many years ago?


A Day to Remember

It had taken years, but the time had finally come to assault Salem's 'Dark Cathedral'. Jaune Arc took in the scene; a dark almost lightless sky met a broken and chaotic horizon. Standing pools of unknown liquid dotted the landscape. Grimm, Beowolfs and Ursi in particular, could be seen emerging from these pools one and sometimes two at a time. They covered the land like a blanket of claws and teeth; their red eyes always somehow finding his blue ones. Beyond the Grimm, perched upon one of the many broken hills sat the Cathedral itself. As beautiful as it was ominous, it's dark walls absorbed what little light there was absolutely. Yet, it still shown with an interior one would say a Purple glow.

"We got this!" a voice said with seemingly forced enthusiasm. Jaune turned to look at the speaker. She was shorter than him by a head, her dark hair faded into red becoming almost indistinguishable from the tattered red cloak she absolutely refused to get rid of. An eye patch covered a sizeable portion of the left side of her face. She wielded a scythe that was almost bigger than she was.

"Mmmm," Jaune replied with a crack of his neck.

"We have all been waiting a long time for this." A certain blond brawler commented; several others nodded in agreement. Jaune took a final surveying look at his companions. The afore mentioned scythe wielder was Ruby Rose. Her sister, Yang Xiao Long, stood close to the reaper. Yang had grown considerably in her time since Beacon all those years ago. She stood only a couple inches shorter than Jaune did but she was much bulkier. Muscly sinew, hard as steel, was visible under her skin. She was by far the strongest physically and she boasted a mechanical right arm past the elbow that looked small and out of place against the rest of her large frame.

Close by was Blake Belladonna, Yang's partner. On the surface Blake had changed very little. Her hair was as dark as ever, her skin was scarred in places, but everyone could claim the same. Her eyes however told a different story; they were focused but unable to completely hide the pain she felt over the loss of her home town: Menagerie.

Weiss Schnee, the last surviving member of the Schnee family, was close by. Her white hair was in the pony tail she usually wore. Weiss no longer wore the snobbish persona of an heiress, but rather a more down to earth, tired look. She wore pants instead of the 'combat skirt' she did all those years ago in order to hide her prosthetic right leg.

Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie were the last two in the group that Jaune looked upon. Ren and Nora were always together, but now it was a necessity. Ren wore his blindfold, that Nora hade made for him, to cover his non-functioning eyes; outside of combat he always kept one hand on Nora so she could lead him around. Nora's bubbly, cheerful personality had been dulled in the years since Beacon's fall. It would come out in full force every once in a while though.

"I'm gonna smash that big ugly building and everyone inside it!" she said cheerfully.

"I think you are going to have to wait your turn." Ren responded.

"Look at all those Grimm!" she continued just as cheerfully, "I bet I could kill the most!"

"You're on!" Yang smiled, as she cracked her knuckles.

Nora smiled wider, "Let's go Renny!" she shouted as she grabbed Ren and jumped into the veritable sea of Grimm.

"Hey!" Yang yelled at them in mock indignation, "it's no fair if you get a head start" as she jumped after them.

"Yaaaaannng!" Ruby cried as she watched her sister go, "Come on Weiss!"

"Right!" the Heiress stated as they both followed the blond brawler.

Jaune took one last look at the building atop the hill in the distance, took a breath, mumbled, "For Pyrrah" and jumped after his friends.

. .

They never stood a chance, the ferocity and speed was too much. The Grimm melted before the seven hunters who had chosen to attack. Jaune could see Nora literally beating Ursi to death with a Beowolf. Yang was flicking Grimm out of existence with just her fingers. The air was soon a suffocating smog of Grimm ash.

Yet still there were more. They died in the hundreds but thousands remained and there seemed no end in sight. Jaune saw a Greater Ursi crawl from one of the pools of liquid and enter the battle. 'Damn!' he thought to himself, 'no matter how many we kill they can just replenish their numbers! We need a way to stop them from spawning.' The battle continued, it was a great warm up for the hunters, but they knew they needed to do something about these Grimm before they were simply overwhelmed with numbers.

 _BOOM!_

Heads turned towards the source of the explosion. Jaune expecting to see Nora with her grenade launcher instead saw Weiss.

"What did you do!?" Ruby shouted

"It was just a little bit of fire!" Weiss responded, "I think I might have hit one of the pools?"

Eureka! The pools were flammable.

"Everyone!" Jaune shouted above the sound of battle, "set the pools on fire!"

They all accepted his order without hesitation.

 _BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!_

Turns out the pools were _HIGHLY_ flammable. Soon the landscape was alight with flame. The Grimm hoard thinned quickly after that, without the ability to replenish their numbers they were quickly whittled down to nothing. Jaune pulled Crocea Mors from the quickly disappearing corps of a Beowolf.

"I'm pretty sure I won that one," Yang stated nonchalantly with a shrug of her shoulders.

"No you didn't!" Nora retorted cheerfully, "I killed at least four hundred and ninety-five!"

"I killed five hundred and five." The brawler smirked.

Nora looked taken aback, how could she lose? "Double or nothing!" she finally shouted.

"Oh?" the brawler asked smirking, "how would that work?" she asked gesturing around, "There are no more Grimm."

Nora leveled a finger at the stone structure on the hill, "Whoever takes down the most bad guys wins!"

"Deal." Yang said as she held out a hand for Nora, smiling weakly, "I'll see you inside."

Nora took the hand, "Take care of yourself in there." She responded.

Jaune was already on his way up the hill towards the structure.

. .

Jaune had made his way up the hill and was standing in front of two giant double doors. Ruby was hot on his heels the entire time.

"How do we get in?" she voiced concerned.

"Knock." The knight replied simply, "Yang, if you would."

"With pleasure." The blond said, cracking her knuckles. She made her way up to the doors and punched them once. They shattered and flew inward as the group of friends charged into the structure.

Once inside Jaune could properly survey the 'grand entryway', as he would have called it. All of the walls seemed to be constructed of the same light absorbing materials. There were stones giving off light that were positioned around the room in addition to candles for extra light. There were seven figures present within the room. Jaune recognized a few of them chief among them was Cinder Fall, the person he hated most. On each side of her were her cronies Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai. All three glared at the intruders. Nearby was Tyrian Callows the Faunus who fought Ruby's uncle Qrow so long ago. There was a big man wearing black and olive green whom Jaune didn't recognize. A man with a mustache stood nearby, another man Jaune didn't quite recognize. The last person Jaune did however recognize.

"YOU!" Blake shouted, "How?" Blake was horrified at what she saw. Adam Taurus, or what was left of him, stood before them. His face was covered with his customary mask, but his skin was bone white and half of his face looked like it was made of metal; though Jaune couldn't tell for sure with the lack of light in the room.

Cinder moved towards Adam and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Magnificent isn't he?" she rasped, "The perfect soldier and completely loyal." She ran a finger along his jaw and across his shoulder then leaned in and kissed him. He made no move to stop her nor did it seem like he acknowledged that she was even there. Blake was visibly fuming at the way Cinder was treating her old companion/enemy like he was simply a tool to be disposed of once she had her fun.

"Hopefully something is still left of him," Yang spoke up, "I still have to pay him back for this" she said as she twirled her mechanical hand in its socket.

"YOU!" Tyrian shouted at Ruby, "Don't think I've forgiven what you did to me!" laughing to finish off his threat.

"I'm going to do A LOT more today!" the reaper retorted.

"Oooooooo!" the scorpion mocked, "Hopefully you will be more fun than that dusty old crow was at the end." Ruby's eyes narrowed at the mention of her uncle.

Weiss stepped forward pointing her blade at the mustached man. "You will pay for what you did to my family Arthur Watts!"

"Please," Watts retorted, "those stuck up snobs. I can and will do better than them once you are out of the way."

"My mother was right to banish you." Weiss spat back.

Jaune stayed focused, eyes never leaving Cinder. He didn't care about the others, the only reason he was her was to avenge Pyrrha's murder. When Cinder's eyes met his she gave no sign that she even recognized him, instead keeping her focus on Ruby.

"I have something that I've been meaning to thank you for." Cinder rasped, pulling away from Adam. She reached into her pocket and removed a small vial. "It's been of great comfort to me on sleepless nights." She said holding Ruby's eye for all to see. Ruby looked at Cinder madder than Jaune had ever seen her before, Weiss gasped, Blake made no reaction that Jaune could see, and Yang's eyes went red.

"Enough," the large man spoke in a deep commanding voice, "Are we going to do this or not?" Cinder looked at him annoyed that he was interrupting her fun.

"Don't worry Rainart it'll happen soon enou…" she was cut off as the reaper appeared next to her in a shower of rose peddles, swinging at the witch.

Her swing was blocked by Adam before she could make contact. Yang started shooting into the crowd of enemies as Weiss supercharged Blake's speed with one of her glyphs. Nora let go of Ren and using her weapon in grenade launcher mode joined Yang in the long range bombardment. Jaune charged forward, running towards Cinder at the same time Blake shot forward like a bullet towards Adam. Reinart appeared through the explosions Yang and Nora were making leaping towards Yang ready to hit her. Yang rolled out of the way avoiding the blow.

 _CRACK!_

As Rainart struck the ground the floor spider webbed under the impact of his blow. Yang rolled to her feet and got into her brawler stance.

Emerald and Mercury landed in front of Jaune; between him and his target. Jaune brought his shield up just in time to catch Black's attack before it connected. Jaune brought his sword around towards his attacker. At the same time Mercury sprung off the shield landing behind Emerald who had her guns leveled at the Knight. As she fired Jaune dove sideways, landing on his shield and sliding across the stone floor.

Nora continued her bombardment of the opposite wall, smiling as each pink explosion lit up the room. That was until Tyrian appeared before her taking aim at her throat. Ren threw her out of the way and locked up his weapons with Tyrians.

"Go help Jaune!" he said, "I got this."

"How…" Nora began to object, then thought better of it and ran to help her friend.

"Got me do you?" the Scorpion laughed. Ren remained silent, focusing all of his attention on his opponent in front of him.

Yang eyed her opponent sizing him up; he did the same to her. She stepped forward lightning quick and threw a left jab. Just as quick he raised an outstretched palm and caught her fist. The force of the blow sent shock waves throughout the room. Unfazed Yang closed the distance and brought her right elbow towards his face. Again her opponent caught her attack. With one hand on her mechanical forearm Rainart began twisting it out and away from him. His strength was such that the metal began to bend in his hands. Yang ignited her weapon's ranged ability on her left hand point blank into Rainart's palm. The plan worked the way Yang had hoped, pushing her and her opponent away from each other. Rainart appeared through the smoke again his hand smoking.

Jaune slid across the floor on his shield as bullets whizzed past him. Jaune collapsed his shield and rolled on his shoulder to his feet expecting more incoming rounds. At that moment Nora landed a hammer blow right on Emerald; only for it to pass right through. The image of Emerald flickered and faded away, when suddenly Mercury appeared attacking Nora. She flipped back and morphed her hammer back into its launcher mode and fired point blank into Black's chest. He threw himself backwards landing on his back narrowly avoiding Nora's shell. Spinning his legs to build momentum Mercury twisted around springing to his feet.

Nora's grenade continued unabated on it's path straight towards the Reaper, two faunus and the Fall Maiden.

Ruby and Blake sprang away from their opponents as one of Nora's shells landed between them. A sword slashed through the pink fireball cutting it in half; the two halves seemed to crystalize into small, sharp shards and flew towards Ruby and Blake. Blake, still under the effects of Weiss' glyph, met each shard that came her way with her blade deflecting or destroying each that came towards her. Ruby pointed her weapon down and fired, projecting herself up and out of the way of the incoming shards. Blake could feel Weiss' glyph fading as she neared the end of the onslaught, she had no time to adjust however as Adam came towards her, low and quick, blade drawn. His attack passed straight through her body in a slash that would have surely killed her; were she still there. Blake's clone took the attack for her as she flipped up over her attacker swinging at the back of his neck. Adam continued his swing, using the momentum to spin himself around in order to once again lock blades with his former ally.

Ruby came down towards the Fall Maiden spinning Crescent Rose so fast she was like a blender. Cinder used her maiden powers to pull the chunks of the ruined door together to form a wall. The Reaper hit the wall but was unable to cut through the material. The cracks in the wall began to glow red. Ruby couldn't help but notice and fired her weapon towards the wall multiple times in an attempt to put some distance between her and it. The rounds landed one on top of the other and a small hole appeared in the wall, a hole through which Ruby could see an eye alight with fire. The Reaper didn't have the chance to fire again before…

 _BOOM!_

…the wall exploded outward, hurling debris towards Ruby.

Small rocks rained down around Yang but she didn't have time to pay attention to that now.

"You are one tough son of a bitch." The brawler said only mocking her opponent a little. He WAS tough; no matter what Yang threw at him he seemed to just absorb it without taking any damage at all. Rainart just cracked his knuckles and spat on the floor before charging her. Yang threw caution to the wind and charged right back. The two combatants met in the middle and just started laying into each other without regard for personal safety. Yang knew that she had fought tougher men, but she really couldn't remember when. Her opponent definitely gave as good as he got, but with her semblance Yang was giving better than she got. However, as much damage as the brawler was dealing out she might as well have been tickling him for all the good it was doing. Rainart just stood there punching and getting punched until he reared his left fist back for a haymaker. Yang saw this obvious wind up and reacted in kind, bringing her own left fist back. They swung at each other and both connected, Yang ignited her weapon at the last second too late for her opponent to dodge.

 _CRACK!_

Yang and Rainart flew away from each other back towards their respective sides of the room.

Weiss took one step to the right in order to avoid being hit by the yellow meteor hurtling towards her. Weiss saw Yang land on all fours and spring back into the battle. Weiss stayed where she was, concentrating. There was a building whirring sound as three glyphs spun faster. A moment later three constructs appeared, two of the Atlas military mechs and one the armored knight that gave her her scar. Across the floor Arthur Watts had a similar idea as he summoned two Atlas mechs as well in addition to… Weiss' blood ran cold a moment before it boiled.

"Neptune…" she breathed. Watts looked directly at the heiress smiling a smug, knowing smile. Weiss regained her composure focusing on the task at hand: killing Arthur Watts as painfully as possible. Watts' constructs moved forward; Weiss went forward with her constructs entering the melee.

Tyrian was starting to get a little frustrated with his blind opponent. The scorpion would launch attacks that he was sure would hit, only for them not to…

"How are you doing that?" Tyrian asked as he attacked again, only to miss again.

"You breathe through your mouth." Ren replied taking an aggressive stance. Tyrian frowned and threw himself at his opponent once again. Ren decided he had played around in this fight long enough and decided to go on the offensive. Ren pointed his weapons in the direction of where he heard his opponent and fired. Tyrian was surprised for a moment at the unerring accuracy with which his blind opponent displayed. Whenever the scorpion would touch the ground; that is where Ren would fire his weapons. This action kept Tyrian constantly moving and unable to regain his footing and press his attack. Realizing this was no longer a close quarters fight, Tyrian started firing back. Ren heard the click of Tyrian's weapon before they fired and made it a point not to stay still for too long, least his opponent get a bead on him. They traded fire, always staying just out of each other's firing lines.

Jaune wanted to go help his blind friend but the knight was having troubles of his own. Emerald was keeping him off balance by making him see things that weren't there. Suddenly the illusionist was surrounded by multiple Grimm. Jaune charged her anyway, unfazed by the appearance of so many enemies. The Knight swung at the Illusionist only for his blade to pass cleanly through her. Emerald took this chance to fire on Jaune's unprotected back. Jaune staggered forward under the impacts before swinging around and bringing his shield to bear. The Knight saw no one, but did take fire from his right. 'She is going to keep whittling me down bit by bit' Jaune thought, 'I just can't see her…" at that moment Jaune had a thought and sprinted to help his friend.

Ren didn't think he could beat this guy. If he still had his sight then maybe he could lead his target; but as it was, all he could do was react to the sounds his opponent made. He was focusing on Tyrian until he heard a familiar clanking sound approaching.

"Ren!" Jaune shouted, "Switch!" with that, Jaune ran straight into Tyrian knocking him to the ground with his shield. Ren made his way back in the direction that Jaune came from. Jaune landed on top of Tyrian.

"Oh goodie!" the scorpion chimed, "I was getting bored with that other one."

Jaune looked at his new opponent and remembered the previous times they had fought him. Jaune needed to end this fight quick, the longer he took to kill this bug the more likely his friends were going to get hurt. Tyrian was showing his age however, Jaune guessed that he was probably pushing about fifty years old. Jaune drew on his aura, rejuvenating himself and charged the older man. Tyrian attacked in kind only to be blocked by Crocea Mors. Jaune slashed at his opponent's legs, a plan forming in his mind.

Nora had turtled up going completely defensive. She was having difficulty hitting her opponent; whereas he had no such difficulty being much faster than the hammer wielder. Nora collapsed her weapon into launcher form to better shield herself. Black pressed the attack, keeping up the tempo he had set. As he leaped in to kick her, Nora changed her weapon back into hammer form with the handle pointed directly at black. With little time to react and no time to dodge the handle caught him in the gut; momentarily stunning him and knocking him to the ground. Nora knew that this was her chance. Flipping her hammer up and catching it by the handle; she brought her weapon directly down on her opponent's right leg, crushing it flat. Black screamed in pain and surprise, but was unable to avoid Nora's next blow to his other leg. With her opponent sufficiently taken out of the battle, Nora looked around to see who needed help.

Ruby and Blake were fighting Cinder and the resurrected Adam. Yang seemed to be holding her own against the big man, Rainart if she remembered his name correctly. Jaune was fight that vile Tyrian Callows; and Renny was trading shots with Emerald. Nora ran towards her boyfriend.

Emerald was getting pretty pissed; her semblance was working perfectly against Arc! As soon as Lie Ren engaged her she was unable to use her semblance against him. Again and again she tried to fool Ren into attacking one of her illusions only for him to know exactly where she was every time. That's when she remembered: Lie Ren is blind. She had just finished this thought when she noticed a pink meteor flying straight for her. Emerald dove out of the way just in time to be missed by Nora's attack. Emerald focused her semblance on the hammer wielder. If the illusionist could get Nora to take out Ren then all she would have to do is clean up the broken girl afterwards. Smiling a sadistic smile she poured her semblance into Nora's mind, switching Ren's image with hers. Then the illusionist noticed something hard in her gut. She looked down to see a green gun in her abdomen. It barked three soft shots, muffled by her stomach. Emerald looked to her right straight into the emotionless face of Lie Ren.

"Pass from this world in peace." He said evenly. Emerald reached up and grabbed Ren's head. Ren fired again point blank into Emerald three more times before she collapsed to the ground clutching Ren's blindfold.

Nora was quite confused, Ren was Emerald and then Emerald was Ren. Nora approached cautiously her weapon raised, ready to defend herself.

"Tell me something only Ren would know." She demanded.

"The secret ingredient in my pancakes is cinnamon." Ren answered. That is definitely something only Ren would know. Secure in the knowledge that this was in fact her boyfriend Nora ran over to him.

"Who should we help?" Nora asked.

"I don't know," Ren replied, "you tell me."

Yang realized she could probably use some help with this guy; how was he so tough? She was using everything she had, but she knew she couldn't keep this up forever. Watching her opponent she noticed a single bead of sweat trickle off of his forehead. Yang smiled to herself and with the knowledge that her opponent wasn't invincible she re-doubled her efforts to beat him.

Weiss was engaged with Watts; their blades clashed and sang against each other. Whenever Weiss found herself gaining the upper hand the construct of Neptune would interfere and allow Watts to recover. She pushed her attack, commanding her constructs to be more aggressive in their attacks. Constructs and blades clashed and 'Neptune' stayed close to Watts taking pot shots with his beam rifle. Watts and Weiss met once again in the middle of the floor, blades clashing against one another. The two were evenly matched in swordplay, but Watts was older, much older, and his age was beginning to show. He had grown stagnant in his later years and was no longer physically capable of prolonged altercations in bladed combat. Weiss on the other hand had spent the last several years going from one battle to the next. Watts knew he had to finish this fight soon, so he summoned his strength and went in for an attack. In his exhaustion his form slipped and Weiss couldn't help but notice. Once Weiss took the upper hand in the fight 'Neptune', right on que, jumped in her way. This time however would be different, Weiss created an ice wall around and under the construct freezing it to the floor.

"You will pay for that." Weiss stated motioning towards 'Neptune'.

"Oh… yeah?" Watts spat between breaths, "I may not… be as… physically… fit as you…" He breathed, making space between himself and his opponent, "But battles… aren't just a… physical contest." With that his other two constructs disengaged and formed a barrier between himself and his opponent. Weiss frowned as she instructed her summons to reengage Watts' summons. As they clashed once more Weiss could see her opponent creating dozens of summoning glyphs. Weiss realizing that she would need to move quickly or risk losing this battle.

Ruby moved faster than the eye could follow, so fast that she seemed to just appear and disappear around her opponent. Cinder did not appreciate the great speed her opponent was displaying. The Maiden likened it in her mind to trying to swat a fly, Ruby shot at the Maiden, a really annoying fly. There was an explosion as something pink detonated near Cinder knocking her off balance. Ruby seized this opportunity to land three successive strikes before the Maiden recovered, blocking the last attack. Adam broke off from Blake and came to defend his master. He swung once, dislodging the Reaper from her quarry. Blake quickly closed the distance and plunged her blade towards the former leader of the White Fang. Adam deflected her attack and they immediately began trading blows once more.

Nora jumped into the fray, swinging at Cinder with her hammer. The maiden jumped, flipping into the air and out of the path of the weapon. She landed directly next to Nora, face to face with her. They briefly looked at one another; Nora had a wide smile that hid her fear of her opponent. Cinder wore a look of focused determination as a thought crossed her mind 'Shouldn't Mercury and Emerald be keeping this annoyance busy?' She shot a glance over to where she remembered her two followers to be. Mercury was on his stomach, using his hands to drag himself towards…

"Emerald" Cinder gasped. The Green haired illusionist lay on the floor, unmoving an obvious pool of blood surrounded her. Cinder felt a wave of rage crash into her as she saw the corps of her only friend. Nora twirled her hammer and swung at the fall maiden; sure the blow would hit.

 _BANG-CRACK!_

The blow made contact with Cinder, but not in the way Nora had hoped. Cinder had brought her hand up and caught the weapon. The hammer's force transferred through her and into the ground which cracked. Nora's smile vanished and Cinder's eyes lit up with flame and stared directly at the Valkyrie. Nora tried to pull her hammer away but Cinder's fingers were alight with flame and they dug into the front of the hammer, unyielding. Ruby and Ren both attacked the burning woman, firing shots or striking with their blades. All attacks either bounced or were blocked by the Maiden's supercharged aura shield. Cinder noticed the dark blood splatter on Ren's green clothes.

"You!" she spat as her aura detonated; throwing all of her attackers away in a blast of fire.

Yang smiled, she was winning. Rainart was breathing heavily, sweat running down his brow. Yang was tired too; she could feel all the bruises, aches, pains, and what she was pretty sure was two broken ribs. She pushed all of that to the back of her mind because her opponent was getting sloppy the more fatigued he got. Rainart was taking hits he didn't need to, throwing some wild swings, and getting slower. Almost in unison the two fighters took a final breath and charged at each other. The big guy swung first; a right jab directly at the blonde's face. She narrowly dodged the fist and got in close. She started raining body shots on her opponent; a right, a left, a right, a left again. She finished her combo with a punch directly into the chest of her opponent. Rainart slid back a few feet as Yang pressed her attack; putting everything into what she hoped would be the knockout punch. Rainart set his feet as he saw his opponent rushing towards him. They both screamed with effort as they each put all their remaining strength into these blows. Due to Rainart's superior reach his punch landed first; his fist slamming into his opponent's face. Yang was rendered unconscious from the force of the impact. Her fist however continued, unabated, along it's path. Rainart's punch did two things; first it rendered Yang unconscious, second it fueled her semblance supercharging her punch. As the brawler's robotic fist made contact with her opponent's fleshy face it imparted so much force that the metal in the arm, already weakened from earlier in the fight, shattered.

 _CRACK!_

The blow sent the two fighters flying away from each other. Yang impacted a wall, imbedding in it, she hung there inside the wall unconscious. Rainart was thrown backwards; skipping across the floor.

Weiss tried desperately to get past Watts' constructs. She knew that if he could summon that many constructs than the battle would tip drastically in his favor. Watts' glyphs spun faster and faster; he looked directly at Weiss with a triumphant smile on his face. Just then Rainart smashed into Watts breaking his concentration and dispersing the glyphs. Weiss blinked, having to take a second to process what just happened. Watts struggled to get Rainart off of him; he had been so close to victory and now he had to start over and quickly. As tired as he was, Watts managed to lift the dead weight of Rainart off of himself. Scrambling over to and reaching for his dropped weapon; Watts had to roll out of the way as the foot of a Paladin construct came down right where he was going to be. Weiss appeared before him; the point of her sword at his throat.

"Surrender Watts." The Heiress demanded, "Your facsimile of Neptune won't be helping you out this time."

Watts laughed, "My dear niece," he mused, "you have no idea how our semblance actually works do you?" Weiss looked at him, a mixture of anger and shock showing on her face before she steeled herself.

"Do elaborate." She spat.

"We can summon our enemies that we slay to fight for us no?" Watts said. Weiss continued to look at him, ready for an attack. "Well," Watts continued, "when you kill someone with a soul you absorb a little piece of them." The look of shock on Weiss' face was almost orgasmic to Watts and he used that moment to discreetly pull a knife from one of his boots.

Weiss shook with anger at the thought of part of Neptune stuck forever with this monster. "I am going to kill you." She hissed.

Watts simply shrugged, "If you did that, a little piece of me would be in you." he smirked and looked directly into her eyes before adding "Forever"

Before Weiss could respond there was a loud explosion as Cinder used her power to throw her attackers from her. Weiss instinctively looked in the direction of the noise and Watts sprung towards her. The heiress realized her mistake too late as Watts plunged his dagger into her stomach. Weiss gasped as her uncle stabbed her again.

"Looks like part of you will reside in me." Watts whispered to her. Weiss staggered back, her wounds glowing as her aura tried to heal her but she was also losing a lot of blood. In a final desperate move the plunged her sword into the ground and used every grain of ice dust she had left. Four walls of ice formed around Watts before he had a chance to react. His breath froze in the air as the walls moved towards him. 'No' he realized, 'the space inside the walls is filling with ice' looking around frantically for some way out Watts spotted the hilt of his sword being slowly swallowed by ice. He scrambled over and tried to grab his sword but it disappeared into the wall before he got to it. Using his dagger he frantically tried to dig into the ice as the walls moved ever closer towards him. Watts' body began to violently shiver in an attempt to combat the extreme cold. The dagger he was using stuck into the ice and didn't move as the wall grew around it. Watts pulled on the knife trying to retrieve his only means of escape. Panicking he placed a hand against the wall trying to gain some leverage on the knife. He screamed as his hand instantly froze to the wall. His mind racked by pain he desperately struggled to remove his hand from the wall pulling with the strength he had left. There was a loud cracking sound as Watts managed to separate himself from the wall and his hand. It remained in place as he dropped to his knees cradling his frozen stump. He looked around at the walls that were steadily closing on him. Knowing he was doomed he screamed in panic and fear as the walls reached the middle trapping him in an icy tomb.

Jaune was having a bit of trouble locking down his opponent. Callows was jumping around never staying in one place long enough for Jaune to get a decent hit on him. Jaune was getting his licks in though. Every time Tyrian would jump or dodge Jaune would get a cut in on his opponent's leg or arm. These wounds were by no means fatal, but their effects were adding up. Tyrian glowed with all the work his aura was doing to heal his wounds.

"Are you ever going to actually fight me?" Tyrian voiced, looking at his wounds heal on his arms, "Or are going to continue dancing?" Jaune stared over the top of his shield at the Faunus. "I don't have a problem with dancing," the scorpion continued, smiling, "I just wish I had a better partner. Mabey someone good looking, with red hair and green eyes. That would be just my type." Jaune's eyes narrowed and he lowered his shield a fraction of an inch. "Oh! Do you recognize someone matching that description? Maybe you could bring her here. Unless," he brought his hand to his face in mock surprise. "Is she dead? Tell me, did she die on her knees?" Jaune was trembling with fury. "That's where all the good ones belong you know." Tyrian continued, a smile on his lips, his eyes staring directly into Jaune's. "So tell me, how good was she exactly?" Tyrian moved his hips suggestively, laughing.

With that Jaune charged, he moved with such speed that Tyrian almost didn't even see it. The Faunus didn't have time to dodge as the Knight slammed his shield into him. Jaune swung his sword at his opponent; Tyrian brought his weapons up in an attempt to defend himself. The blow was so powerful that it pushed his arms down. The tip of Crocea Mors sliced Tyrian's face and ran across his chest.

"What? Did I strike a nerve?" the Faunus asked, no longer smiling. Jaune swung wildly again but Tyrian simply rolled out of the way. Jaune remembered that he had a strategy to defeat his opponent, but it was lost to him at the moment as he viciously swung Crocea Mors.

"Now this is more like it!" Tyrian spouted gleefully.

"Do you ever shut up?" Jaune shouted as he swung again at his opponent. Tyrian smiled at the knight as he attacked; jumping up and opening fire with his wrist cannons. Jaune brought his shield up and swung his sword at the point where he thought his opponent would land. The blade was deflected away by Tyrian; Jaune kept up his momentum and brought his shield around into the Faunus. The scorpion jumped and landed on the shield face to face with Jaune. Something came rushing towards Jaune's face and he moved his head just in time to dodge it.

"You like it?" the smiling Scorpion asked, his tail bobbing a bit behind him, "The mistress gave it to me after I took care of that dusty old crow." Looking at the tail Jaune could see that the stinger Ruby had amputated so long ago had been replaced by a mechanical version. He didn't have much time to look at the appendage as it snapped towards him again and again. Jaune narrowly dodged each time but Tyrian was coming closer and closer each time. Jaune needed to get him off of his shield but he couldn't shake him. Jaune collapsed his shield into it's scabbard mode and thrust his sword towards the surprised Faunus. Tyrian managed to dodge out of the way of a killing blow but didn't avoid damage all together. Tyrian recovered quickly and grabbed Jaune's arm before he could extend his shield again.

"That was a neat trick!" Tyrian spat, venom dripping on every word, "Time for me to show you one of my own." With that one of Tyrian's arm blades closed around Jaune's fore arm cutting deep into the flesh. Jaune struggled to free himself as his opponent ripped the knight's shield from his arm.

"You won't be needing _this_." Tyrian said as he threw the shield away. Jaune swung his sword at the arm that was currently causing him pain. Tyrian parried the blow and used the momentum to throw Jaune onto the ground with both arms pinned down and himself sitting atop the blond knight. Jaune struggled against his captor, his opponent held his sword arm down with his outstretched arm.

"Now where were we?" Tyrian chortled melodically, bringing his stinger menacingly close to Jaune's neck. Suddenly there was an explosion and Tyrian looked over, confident in his victory. Jaune rolled his sword arm out of his captor's grasp, grabbed his opponent's stinger and stabbed it directly into the scorpion's chest. Tyrian, shocked, sat up and looked down to see purple liquid oozing from his chest. Jaune rolled them both over and struck the stinger with the palm of his hand; driving it directly into the Scorpion's heart. Tyrian died with a look of surprise on his face.

Jaune breathed heavily and looked around the battle. It seemed that his side was winning, but at a cost. Blake was still engaged with the resurrected Adam Tarus; Yang was imbedded in a wall unmoving; Nora, Ren and Ruby had just been knocked back by Cinder but they were recovering; and Weiss was on her knees next to an ice pillar that reached all the way to the ceiling. What concerned Jaune was that Weiss' normally snow white clothes were a very crimson color at the moment. Jaune tried to move over to her but his arm was still stuck in Tyrian's claw.

Blake was worried about her friends but couldn't check on them, as much as she wanted to. Adam stared directly at Blake, seemingly oblivious to all other stimuli. Blake pressed the attack once more but Adam blocked or parried each strike efficiently; almost, one would say, mechanically. Blake mentally kicked herself for not noticing this before; but it did give her an idea. She charged forward creating a shadow clone that would hopefully distract Adam while she followed close behind; hiding behind her double. Adam sliced through the clone, destroying it. Before he could recover Blake was there swinging with her weapon in katana mode. Adam hesitated for a fraction of a second before bringing his blade back to block Blake's. The cat faunus sprung up and around the clashing blades and landed a kick across her opponent's face, sending his mask flying.

Blake jumped back, just out of reach of Adam's blade. She gasped in shock at what she saw. Adam's right eye had been replaced with an artificial one, a single red dot gave any indication that he was looking at her. Much of his forehead was metal, it also wrapped around the right side of his head, previously hidden by his mask. What shocked Blake the most was that Adam's left eye was pointing up and to the left, his red iris had at some point gone white and was now completely devoid of color.

"What have they done to you?" Blake asked. Adam gave no reply; he just stared at her waiting for her to make a move. That's when Blake realized that this person; no, this _thing_ was no longer Adam Taurus. He was just a corpse that had been denied death.

Ruby quickly got up and watched as Cinder pulled two swords seemingly out of thin air and advanced on Ren. Ren was still a little disoriented from the explosion and didn't hear the furious Maiden coming. Ren was lifted into the air by a vortex of wind and flew towards the tip of Cinder's blade. Just before the blind ninja was impaled on the Fall Maiden's blade a blur of red and rose peddles knocked him out of the way. Ruby impacted Ren feet first doing two things simultaneously; push her friend out of the way and spring towards Cinder.

Ruby swung Crescent Rose at her enemy with all the speed she could conjure. The attack missed, coming centimeters from Cinder's neck. Ruby cursed her lapse of depth perception and pushed forward; swinging once more. Her opponent was ready this time and quickly brought her blade up to deflect the scythe. Ruby swung at her opponent so fast and so many times that Nora likened her to a blender. Cinder was deflecting but not stopping her blows; some were getting through, giving her small cuts and slashes. The maiden couldn't use any of her powers because all of her effort was focused on seeing and countering the blows that would surely kill her should she let her attention slip for even a moment. Nora, seeing that Cinder was distracted, took this opportunity to hurt the person who was going to kill her boyfriend. Nora landed behind Cinder and swung her hammer into the distracted maiden. Nora felt the crack of a couple of ribs reverberate through the handle of her hammer as Cinder was sent flying. Ruby smiled at her friend who smiled back before running over to Ren who was still a little disoriented. Ruby heard a scream that sounded like Weiss coming from a pillar of ice in the middle of the room. Before she went to investigate the noise she saw a sight that made her stop. Cinder was standing and all the wounds Ruby had inflicted glowed brightly before disappearing from her body. Cinder smiled sadistically and suddenly Ruby felt very small.

Jaune had managed to free himself from the corpse of Tyrian and had made his way over to Weiss. She was bleeding profusely as her aura tried and failed to close the wounds that were just too deep. Jaune cradled the woman he once had a crush on in his arms as she looked weakly at him.

"I've used too much of my aura." She said to him.

"It's ok," he replied, "you are just going to have a couple more scars to hide is all." Jaune smiled in a way he hadn't since Beacon all those years ago. Weiss frowned at him before smirking.

"You dolt." She responded a bit weakly. Weiss had always been a bit cold to the touch but now Jaune thought that she felt like ice. Jaune thought desperately for a way to save his friend. He came to the realization that she didn't have the time for anything he could do with his meager medical skills. That's when he remembered something: a scene from a Spruce Willis movie where he used dust to close a wound. Jaune looked over to Weiss' weapon still stuck in the ground next to her. He removed the cartridge with the red Dust from it and poured some into his hand. Jaune was never very good with Dust but thanks to Weiss' instruction on the road he at least knew how to use it.

Weiss looked at the Dust in Jaune's hand before peering back into his striking blue eyes and voicing "What are…" before being silenced by the knight.

"This is gonna hurt." He said before he quickly pressed his hand to her wound which caused a pained gasp to escape her lips.

"That wasn't so…" the end of Weiss' statement was lost to an ear piercing scream that reverberated from the walls. Jaune had activated the Dust in her wounds and flame emanated from between his hand and her body. The heat was so intense that it burned Jaune's hand through his glove. As soon as heat had dispersed Weiss went limp and the smell of burnt human flesh filled the Knight's nose. He removed his hand to inspect the wounds. It was a nasty burn, Weiss' white skin had been scorched black in places but, she was no longer bleeding. Jaune reached up and gently slapped the Heiress back into consciousness.

She looked at him groggily, "Don't ever do that again." She said weakly.

"Sorry, but I'm not sorry." Jaune replied, searching through the pouches on his belt. "I'm going to have to just make it up to you later. Here." Jaune handed Weiss two pills and his canteen.

"What are these?" Weiss asked.

"The last of the aura boosters that General Iornwood gave us." Jaune said putting the pills in her mouth and helping her take a drink from his canteen. She swallowed the pills but started coughing shortly after.

"*Cough!* *Cough!* Jaune is that *Cough!* whiskey!?" Weiss asked/accused.

"Its all I had" Jaune responded taking a swig from his canteen; he felt the burn deep in his gut. As Weiss looked worriedly at him he looked to her wounds that had already begun to glow brightly. Jaune stood and began making his way towards the sounds of battle, returning his canteen to his belt.

Cinder renewed her fight with Ruby by throwing Ren and Nora into the far wall with her powers. Summoning shards of ice a foot long Cinder shot them at her enemy. Ruby destroyed or deflected most of them, but there were so many that a few got through. As Ruby stumbled back from the blows that hit her, Cinder leveled her bow at her. Ruby recovered just in time to see the arrow pointed at her as she dashed out of the way. Cinder fired too late and completely missed. Ruby returned fire with Crescent Rose but Cinder just blocked every shot. They traded shots before Ruby sped off, only to slam into a wall that Cinder had created out of door debris and pieces of the shattered floor. The reaper made to dash away in the opposite direction as an arrow impacted her, pinning her to the wall. She let out a small scream of surprise and pain as Cinder advanced towards her.

Blake heard Ruby scream and moved to help her team leader when the corpse of Adam blocked her path; stopping her from helping her friend.

Cinder walked closer to the person who took her eye and dishonored her in the eyes of her master. As she closed on her adversary a memory from a lifetime ago crossed her mind.

"This reminds me of another girl clad in red who was foolish enough to face me." Cinder mused as she drew back an arrow in her bow. "Your destiny ends here however." As she leveled the bow at the chest of the fearful reaper a single word rang out across the room.

"NO!" Jaune screamed. His aura flared a brilliant white that covered his entire body. He ran towards Cinder Fall as fast as he could, Crocea Mors sheathed on his hip.

Cinder saw the white blur charging towards her and fired at it. Her arrow hit dead center but broke against the blinding light. The Fall Maiden summoned all of her power and created a jet of flame so hot the floor beneath it melted. She directed this hellfire in the direction of the oncoming Knight. The brilliant light was lost in the flame as the broken floor fused in places and Weiss' pillar of ice turned to steam. Cinder smirked before a smoking hand reached from the flames and grabbed her by the throat. The flames died as she gasped for air and Jaune's face appeared, unharmed by the flames. Rage was the only emotion Cinder could see in his eyes as he brought his fist back and punched her in the face.

 _CRACK!_

He hit her so hard that her aura was immediately overwhelmed.

 _CRACK!_

He punched her again and Cinder felt her jaw break; the blow caused her legs to buckle. Jaune pinned her down by her throat and squeezed.

 _CRACK!_

Cinder's eye rolled back from the force of the blow and the lack of oxygen.

 _CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!_

Jaune saw only red but he let all his repressed emotions flow freely. _You weren't strong enough to save her!_ Was the most prominent thought that ran through his head.

 _CRACK! CRACK!_

The left side of Cinder's face was becoming bloody pulp as Jaune kept punching, his aura fueling him and his emotions fueling his aura. Suddenly Jaune was thrown from atop Cinder as he got back up he realized what had happened.

Salem had glided silently into the room and thrown Jaune off of her disciple.

"Thank you, Cinder." Salem said in a silky yet terrifying voice as she used her powers to lift Cinder from the ground. "You bought me enough time to do what I needed to." Cinder tried to smile at her master but could only manage a halfhearted smirk. "However," the Mistress of Grimm Continued, "I have no further need of you." With that Salem flicked her wrist and Cinder's head spun completely around to face behind her. The Mistress of Grimm allowed her once disciple's body to fall to the ground as the powers of the Fall Maiden went to the last woman in the thoughts of Cinder Fall: Salem.

Salem cackled an evil, haunting and insane laugh. "Now I have the powers of all four Maidens!" she proclaimed as Cinder's power became her own. Lightning forked around her as she held a blizzard in one hand and the power of the sun in the other. The wind swirled around her as she began to float into the air, pieces of debris swirling around her.

Blake fought desperately to get past her opponent but was blocked at every turn. 'Adam's' mechanical eye bored into her; unrelenting. Every attack, feint or attempt to simply run around her opponent failed. Blake was brought out of her desperation as she heard Jaune shout. She watched as he became blinding white and charged Cinder. When Cinder used her powers to attack Jaune, Blake's heart sunk as another one of her friends died. That was until the flames died and Blake saw Jaune with his hand around Cinder's throat. When Jaune punched Cinder it was so loud that it hurt Blake's sensitive ears. That's when she noticed that 'Adam' was no longer looking at her. She advanced quickly and struck. 'Adam' heard her and reacted too late as Blake plunged her sword into his neck. 'Adam's' body shook violently as electrical connections were severed or short circuited. Blake withdrew her blade and swung with all her might severing her opponent's head from his shoulders; a mixture of blood, oil and an unknown substance geysered from his stump of a neck. Blake ran over to Ruby who was struggling to dislodge herself from the wall.

Ruby couldn't pull the arrow from her shoulder no matter how hard she tried. When Blake ran over and broke the arrow Ruby chided herself for not thinking of that. The Faunus removed her friend from the wall and they both watched as Jaune released his fury on Cinder. Just as they were both about to stop the knight Salem appeared. Ruby and Blake watched in horror as Salem assumed the powers of a god.

. .

Salem was basking in the power she had accumulated; with the power of all four maidens she could create or destroy at will, even without the aid of the relics. As she was riding the wave of ecstasy an insect decided to try and tempt her wrath.

Jaune rushed towards Salem, blade drawn, in an attempt to kill her before she was ready to fight. Just as he got within range he was lifted into the air and held immobile.

Salem looked over to him, "Just what do you think you are doing Mr. Arc?" she asked sinfully.

Jaune struggled to no avail, "Well," he sighed, "I was trying to kill you quickly and end this before it began." Her eyes met his and Jaune fought hard not to flinch as her red eyes seemed to bore into his soul.

"A valiant attempt," she said smiling, "but answer me this: why fight me when you can join me?" Jaune was taken aback in surprise and disgust.

"Why would I ever join you?" the Knight spat at her struggling fruitlessly in the air.

"Hate, fear and sadness infest your heart." She sinfully whispered, "You feed your hate with the other two to give yourself strength. You could have a place at my side in the world I will create." Jaune forced himself to look into her red eyes, keeping them focused on himself. "And with these powers I could grant you any wish." She continued as she flourished her powers, driving her point home.

"Why would you even want me?" Jaune voiced, maintaining eye contact, "I mean I helped kill your previous employees."

"That is precisely why." Salem smiled and Jaune involuntarily flinched but kept looking into her eyes. "You have proven yourselves to be stronger than my previous disciples." Unblinking, Salem asked again "So, are you ready to have every wish granted?"

"You can grant me any wish?" Jaune asked.

Nora had recovered from being thrown into the wall and while Jaune was distracting Salem she got into position. Nora saw Ruby and Blake had done the same. When Jaune gave the signal Nora would fire at the Mistress of Grimm taking careful aim not to hit her captive.

"Yes." Salem curtly answered frowning a little.

"Then for my first wish," Jaune said, breaking eye contact before looking back at her, "die." Just then the world exploded in a cloud of pink dust and Jaune was thrown backwards as Salem lost concentration.

Yang could feel her head pounding and her jaw hurting as she started to come back into consciousness. She opened her eyes and the room spun a little in her vision. Shaking her head to clear it, she saw a pink cloud, Nora, Ruby and Blake were firing into it and a certain blond knight seemed to be flying towards her. He hit the wall a couple of feet away and slid to the ground. Yang looked down and realized two things: first was that she was somehow in the wall and the second was that her mechanical arm was missing. She quickly inspected the broken metal attached to the end of her arm and a sigh escaped her lips as she realized that she realized that there was no saving her mechanical appendage. She pushed herself from the wall and made her way over to Jaune.

"Please tell me we won and that is just a victory celebration." Yang said gesturing to the pink cloud as she helped the blond knight to his feet.

"Salem killed Cinder and took her power." Jaune said, noticing the shocked expression in Yang's face. "She also claims to have the powers of the other three maidens."

"You think she's telling the truth?" Yang asked, a look of fear making its way on to her features.

"Yes." Jaune said without hesitation, "Look!" he continued, placing a hand on her shoulder to get her to look at him, "I might have a plan but I need you to go help Weiss. She's over there." Jaune said pointing over at a small hill of ice, "I need you to go help her."

"But…" Yang began to protest glancing at the expanding pink cloud.

"Yang!" Jaune interrupted forcefully, "Weiss needs your help!" Yang looked at him, after a moment she nodded and ran in the direction Jaune pointed. "Now," Jaune said to himself, "how do we kill a god?"

Ruby, Nora and Blake stopped firing into the cloud of pink for one reason: they couldn't see what they were aiming at. Keeping their guards up; they slowly crept closer. Suddenly a wave of fire burst from within the cloud. The huntresses all narrowly dodged out of the way as the cloud rapidly condensed revealing: Salem, completely unscathed. The pink cloud condensed into a solid sphere in Salem's hand before she threw it at Nora. Smiling, Nora swung the hammer like a bat and knocked the pink sphere back at the Mistress of Grimm. Without hesitation Salem deflected it towards Ruby and Blake. Ruby zigged while Blake zagged and both huntresses dodged the incoming projectile. Salem began floating in the air as wind whipped around her and lightning forked above. The ground bucked violently below and everyone, save Salem, was sent flying as the structure they were in violently shook itself apart around them.

Salem created a small hill which she was currently perched atop. She stood there while the roof cracked open revealing dark thunder clouds above; lightning arcing from those clouds. Flame surrounded her, protecting her from any fool who was brave enough to try and attack her. Deadly ice shards encircled the fame, unaffected by the heat, threatening to impale any who came too close. The ground shook violently whenever Salem commanded it to keep her attackers off balance.

Jaune might have had a plan forming in his head, but that plan quickly went out the window as soon as Salem started causing the ground to quake in fear of her and the sky to open. 'Guess I'll just have to improvise.' He thought as he surveyed the battlefield once more.

"Nora!" Jaune called as Nora looked over at him, "Go!" Jaune pointed at the broken roof just as Lightning cracked above. Nora smiled and used her hammer to propel herself upwards. "Ruby! Blake!" Jaune called out, "Circle around her and lay on the firepower!" Ruby and Blake did just that, running circles around Salem while firing at her. Ren followed suit, following the sound of their footsteps as he fired at the massive corrupt aura that could only be Salem.

"JUMP!" Ren shouted just before Salem caused the ground to quake. Everyone jumped and was unaffected by the trembling earth.

Lightning crashed again and again into Nora's outstretched hammer, supercharging her semblance to almost bursting. She knew she would have to expend this energy soon or it would harm _her_ as her semblance overloaded. She also knew to wait for Jaune's signal, so Nora gritted her teeth and waited.

Shards of ice three feet long flew in every direction away from Salem. As soon as one flew towards a target another would appear. The ground was quickly becoming a jagged icy wasteland. Yet Jaune, Ren, Blake and Ruby still ran in circles around the Mistress of Grimm firing at her as they went. Then a line of flame ran along the ground towards Salem, melting the ice in its path. Jaune looked over and saw Weiss being supported by Yang.

"Yang! Blake! Bumblebee!" Jaune shouted above the cacophony of the wind and gunfire. Yang ran into battle as Weiss summoned a Gryphon to ride into battle. Blake tossed her weapon to Yang the latter wrapping the 'tail' of the weapon around her upper right arm. Yang ran to build up momentum as Blake swung her in a circle. Weiss flew at a safe distance casting dust projectiles at Salem. As Yang came around on her first pass the shards of ice surrounding Salem formed a wall with jagged ice spikes protruding from it. Yang effortlessly smashed through it but missed her target.

"Blake! Move forward!" Jaune called turning his sword into broadsword mode. Blake moved towards Salem while swinging Yang with all her might. "A little more!" Jaune yelled. Blake obediently moved closer. Yang overshot her target but the line tethering her to Blake passed right through Salem's shield unaffected and Yang spun around her holding her in place. As Salem refocused her attention on Yang and Blake she weakened her defenses to go on the offence. "Nora! Now!" Jaune screamed.

Nora jumped from the roof directly towards her target. Salem realized her mistake too late as a supercharged Nora smashed through her barriers.

Nora's attack impacted with so much force that she pounded the hill Salem had made flat. The air was choked with dust so thick that Jaune couldn't see what was going on. Suddenly Nora came flying backwards out of the dust cloud; Ruby used her semblance to catch her before she hit the ground. Jaune was still focused on the dust plume. He watched as a pillar of flame illuminated the cloud from within, silhouetting a lone figure. The flames quickly burned away the dust cloud revealing a very angry looking Salem.

Weiss was the first to attack as she sent a bolt of electricity arcing at the enemy of mankind. Salem caught it with one hand while forming a giant ball of ice in the other. She combined the two before sending it hurtling back at Weiss. The attack came too fast for Weiss to react and she fell to the ground as her summon was destroyed. Yang charged forward only to be swallowed by the ground; she struggled as the ground slowly crushed her. Blake rushed Salem, using her semblance to appear in multiple places simultaneously. The Mistress of Grimm sent out a wave of ice that caught every Blake, real or not, in an icy grip. Blake tried to move as she was slowly being swallowed by ice. Jaune and Ren attacked together only to get blasted by fire and thrown back for their trouble. Ruby saw the plight of her friends and became fearful for them. She felt a power well up inside her that she hadn't felt since she had her eye taken.

Salem took subdued each of her aggressors one by one making sure they would live so she could punish them later. She was suddenly blinded as silver light burst from the eye of Ruby Rose. The Grimm in her instinctively recoiled from the huntress even as the logical side of her brain wondered how Ruby could summon this power with only one eye. Her emotions however, overrode the previous two as she let her anger at the impudence of these mortals give her strength. Without thinking, Salem rushed towards the silver eyed reaper.

Ruby was somehow using the power of her silver eyes, she didn't know how but she didn't question it. Feeling suddenly full of energy she noticed her enemy rushing towards her and answered in kind.

Few in the world were fast enough to follow the fight between Salem and Ruby. They moved so fast and struck each other with such power that the clouds above them had parted by their second strike. At one point Ruby severed Salem's left arm only for Salem to 'regrow' it with her new found powers. It was clear to Ruby that only a killing blow would end this fight.

Ruby began slowing down as the fight went on. While at the beginning of the fight she found herself full of energy, her powers were unstable and taxing her body greatly. Pushing forward anyway Ruby continued to clash with Salem. No matter what she did Ruby couldn't quite hit Salem when she needed to. While Salem was also visibly becoming tired she just had so much more power at her disposal than Ruby could ever hope to have. Ruby's power began to flicker and she knew that she needed to end this fight quickly.

Ruby swung a silver energy enhanced Crescent Rose at Salem the blade passing behind the pale woman. A small look of fear crossed the mistress' face as Ruby smirked; she pulled the trigger on her weapon meaning to cut the woman in half.

 _Click._

Ruby's face fell as she realized she was out of ammo and to make matters worse the power of her silver eyes failed her right then and there. Ruby looked into the face of her smiling opponent and knew that she was doomed.

Salem grabbed Crescent Rose with one hand and used the other to grab Ruby rose by the throat. She ripped the weapon out of its wielder's hands and threw it aside. "I must thank you Ruby Rose." Salem gloated, "You allowed me to test the limits of my new powers. But now," she brought her free hand back, ice collecting on it as it simultaneously burst into flame, "you are just a threat that needs to be removed."

As Salem swung on Ruby, meaning to kill her, the Mistress of Grimm's chest exploded outwards. Blood splashed across Ruby's face as the tip of Crocea Mors in broadsword mode burst from Salem's chest. Salem dropped Ruby as she herself fell to her own knees looking at the hole in her chest.

Color returned to Jaune as Ren's semblance faded from him. Standing up Jaune removed his sword from its sheath leaving the latter still impaled through Salem. He walked around the defeated woman blade out as she looked incredulously up at him.

"You said you could grant my any wish," Jaune said, spitting Salem's words back at her, "grant me anything I want. Well, you know what I want?" he drove his blade into Salem's chest right where her black heart should be. "I want Pyrrah back you bitch!" Jaune came inches from Salem's face as he said that. Salem weakly placed her hands on Jaune's shoulders as he twisted his blade a little.

Salem suddenly grabbed Jaune's head with strength that she shouldn't have. He struggled to get away to no avail; that's when he realized that Salem was laughing.

"You want to be with your precious Pyrrah Nikos so bad?" She screamed in a dark voice that sounded nothing like she did earlier, "Then you can spend every day for the rest of eternity with her!" She began funneling dark energy into Jaune and he screamed. Every one of Jaune's nerves was on fire; never before had he experienced pain like this. The last thing he saw was Salem laughing as darkness filled his vision.

. .

Jaune awoke covered in a cold sweat and sprung out of his bed. He instinctively reached for Crocea Mors, which he always kept close by, but it wasn't there. Confused Jaune looked around for a weapon; anything to defend himself. Looking around Jaune realized where he was: his old dorm room back at Beacon. There were three other people in the room with him. He recognized all of them. Nora was sprawled out on the bed she used to sleep in, Ren lay rigidly in his own bed and…

"Pyrrah?" the name escaped Jaune's lips as his eyes came to rest on the redheaded Spartan laying in her old bed.

 **To Be Continued…**

 **Author's note: Please rate and review.**

 **Yes, I am planning on continuing this.**

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